AN: PoF is back! So are the updates! So are the insane fanfics ideas we are throwing back and forth between us. Emmie and PoF are at it once more! Long live the fluff! I have a Sesshomaru plushie that also has a huge fluffy on it. I felt I needed to share that. Thank you for everyone who has been following the story so far, hope you keep on enjoying it! Let us know what you think!
Dark Huntress: Thanks for pointing out the mistake... heh heh... sheepish grin Never do things in the middle of the night. They usually come out bad. But at least someone is looking out for us! Hopefully you'll enjoy this chapter!
Enjoy Chapter Sixteen!
Chapter Sixteen
"Do you know how much I love you?" Miroku asked before continuing on with anything else, freezing his hands over her form. "Do you, Sango?"
She licked her lips. "As much as I love you," she answered. Sango let her fingertips brush his cheeks, and she smiled at him, laying the palm of her hands against his face. "You love me enough to want to spend your lives with only me. You love me enough to raise children with me, and to fight beside me, and let me still be myself…. Because you love me, I love you, and I love myself." She laughed softly, and kissed him once. "It sounds so ridiculous, but it's true. Every time you say that you love me, it makes me love you more. Is that how you feel, Miroku?"
Miroku nodded a sly, yet warm grin touching his face. "Yes, but I'd just also add how terribly sexy you are," Miroku teased, leaning down for a deep kiss.
"Sang-" Kagome stopped short and quickly turned on her heel, wringing her fingers together behind her back, her eyes scanning the top of the trees. "Uh, I was told to go get you before you got lost and all..." Kagome said, clearing her throat. How embarrassing!
Laughing against Miroku's mouth, she glanced over in the direction of Kagome's voice. How mortifying! "We're coming! Be there in a minute!" Sango managed to get out, hearing Miroku laugh gently before he kissed her again. Perhaps they should start planning these rendez-vous slightly better… But then what would happen to all the fun?
XX
'Maybe Sesshomaru was right…' Inuyasha thought, rubbing his nose, and his ears occasionally twitching. Personally, he was kind of glad when Sesshomaru sent Kagome to go and find Miroku and Sango, although he had expected them to be finished when she arrived there.
The two brothers took a pause, and Inuyasha leaned against a tree. He watched Sesshomaru closely, but was distracted when he saw that though Kagome had wandered off behind them, the leaves of the tree he was leaning on seemed slightly brighter. When Inuyasha straightened, the brightening stopped. He smiled, although it seemed more like a smirk, his mind dwelling on what he had to discuss with his brother. It was vitally important.
'It makes sense that I would be able to heal the trees like her,' he thought, thinking back to last night. Her essence, whatever it was that made Kagome be Kagome was in his veins now too. And he was in hers. No doubt that by later that night it would have disappeared, but for now, he liked the idea of being able to heal the land, like her. Inuyasha leaned on the tree again, watching as the tree pulled whatever it was he possessed out of his body, mending itself. Demons could heal themselves, but to be able to heal other people… Inuyasha thought he would give up being half demon for that type of power any day. There was so much good in that power, so much room for the possibility of helping and….
And he couldn't put it off any longer. He looked at his half brother, and his face grew serious, even slightly dangerous, readying himself for anything Sesshomaru might say. "What must I do to be able to get you to accept Kagome and promise us that you will leave us alone once your thrown is back?" He paused. "Fuck, you don't even need to accept her, Sesshomaru, I just don't want to have to worry about you trying to kill her or our kids."
Sesshomaru's expression didn't change. The condemning expression remained there, as he looked him over. "Why would I accept a human into the family?" he asked. But, knowing that he needed that borrowed strength... "I won't harm her, as we fight Naraku," he promised, hating it even as he said it.
"That's not good enough," Inuyasha growled, not afraid to let Sesshomaru see his anger regarding the situation. His voice slowed into a hissed. "Because I love her! Look, whether you want to accept her or not, she's still family, and you're still going to be an uncle. I don't want you to harm her at all!"
Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed. "You know the difficulties of being a half-breed mutt," Sesshomaru said coldly. "Why bring another into the world?" he asked nonchalantly. He was neither here nor there answering Inuyasha's question or demands.
He shook his head, his silver hair almost making him look angelic as his face softened. "It hasn't stopped me from gaining friends, or a wife. It hasn't stopped me from living. People come in every single shape, size, color; some have dog ears, or tails, or… or happen to be bastards who look like princes, in your case. What should it matter what I am? I'm Inuyasha. You may hate me, Sesshomaru, but that doesn't mean I have to hate myself."
"Of course not. It simply makes you selfish. Don't you remember the taunting? The pain? Human nor demon accepted you. Why put another being through that?" Sesshomaru asked, recalling as Inuyasha ran to people with a ball, wanting to play, and they all just turned away. "Do the unborn have reasons not to hate themselves?" Sesshomaru shook his head.
Memories he had long suppressed resurfaced, but he shoved them away again. He had better memories now. "People can change. Times can change. If my children encounter that kind of pain and rejection, then I will do everything I can to keep them from it. Besides, they'll only be a quarter demon. They might not be physically different, and people will accept them all the more easily that way."
"With ears and fangs?" Sesshomaru posed, then shrugged and looked back toward the path. "Your companions are slow," he stated and looked back at Inuyasha. "How long do you think this unholy mating will last? A demon to a Priestess? I am purposefully ignoring the monk and slayer," Sesshomary said coldly.
"It will last longer than you and Kagura," he said pointedly, the grin slowly returning. He folded his arms. "It will last until one of us dies. 'Till death do us part,'" Inuyasha quoted, holding up his hand to show him the wedding band. "When I put that ring on her finger, I put it on there with the intent of binding us together forever, and I'm not going to lose that. I'm not going to lose her. Not to you, or Naraku, or anyone else!"
Sesshomaru smirked to that. "As befitting a half-breed mutt," Sesshomaru said, disgusted by the golden band. "Do you forget how easily it is to purge such a 'binding'?" Sesshomaru asked coldly, his eyes looking dull and dead, though their power was immense and flowing. "And this is just a piece of metal. So easily snapped" Sesshomaru wrinkled his nose when the wind changed. "You stink of her," Sesshomaru said disgustedly.
"I suppose I do not care. You were a disgrace and simply continue to be that." Sesshomaru spoke dully. "Speaking of purging, how did it feel to see the mark fade under Naraku's doing?"
"Like shit. It felt better to see it return. Every time somebody tries to snap us apart, we will become stronger, Sesshomaru," Inuyasha warned, as if his brother's words hinted at another plot to try and separate them. "Bonds are as strong as people believe they are. And I believe that this one is stronger than anything else I've ever encountered. Even you can't break out, try as you might."
'Well, at least the pup is finally standing up for himself,' Sesshomaru thought and walked away, continuing back to the camp. "I managed with Kikyo. Didn't I? And just because we aren't on a ship, does not mean that when the time comes, a lesson won't be taught to you," Sesshomaru said, stopping in his tracks to actually look at Inuyasha. "On your flesh. Not hers."
He continued to walk, his senses still lingering behind them, listening for any signs of Kagome coming back. For some reason, he didn't want her knowing he was talking to Sesshomaru about this, even though he knew it had to be done. "I never had this kind of bond with Kikyo. I loved her, and I still do, for the person she was before she got brought back to life. By the way, how does that feel, finding all your work undone like that?" he smirked.
"What work? It was playful play time." Sesshomaru corrected cruelly. "I do not mind. I enjoyed every agonizing scream and every burst of blood that gushed out of her pale form. Taming the spirit until it left the body, was a most pleasurable way to spend the hot days of a summer on the sea," Sesshomaru told Inuyasha, sharing with him in the facts.
"And if you think I erred, then fine, 'teach' me your lesson, but I doubt it will sink in, Sesshomaru! In fact, I know it won't. I'll still be in love with her, and I'll still be a part of her."
Whipping out of his hand, the long powerful whips of a true demon, Sesshomaru turned on Inuyasha with the speed of a pure demon, with the powerfulness of their father. His poison seeped out of him. "Do you wish to put that to the test, little one? Because I still have a score to settle with you about that day a month ago." Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes. "As a part of the dead, will you be able to protect her?" he asked, knowing that once Inuyasha was out of the way, the child would be eliminated as well.
However, remembering Naraku, Sesshomaru retracted his powers and glowing whips. "Something to save for later."
Inuyasha had barely batted an eye. Even if he had to give up his humanity, the gift from his mother he had secretly treasured the most, he would do so in a heartbeat to kill his brother and protect his family. Inuyasha was getting pissed off. He reached out with almost as much speed as Sesshomaru had possessed and grabbed his brother's arm.
"Fine, save it for later. But I still want an answer now! Leave my family alone, Sesshomaru! You've made it clear to everybody else that you and I are related by blood only, and that even that is thin. On more than one occasion you've demonstrated that I mean nothing to you, not now that you hate what I am because of my Mother! What should you care that your half brother is living in a human world? Better there than here, right! All I want is the reassurance that you will let them live in peace!"
Sesshomaru watched Inuyasha's little tantrum with much ease. "Fine. She doesn't concern me anyway, and to waste time on her, would be a waste indeed," Sesshomaru said, the closest he would come to reaching an agreement about Inuyasha's family's fate. "Can we turn now to more pressing matters than your mutt and bitch?"
He grinned proudly, the victory meaning more to him than Sesshomaru could ever hope to understand. "Of course. I presume you mean Naraku. His footing into the roots of this world must have grown stronger in the years we were gone, if you haven't been able to force him out yet. Then again, he had four years for his despotism to sink into the soil itself…."
Sesshomaru's face remained grave and serious, if however cold and uncaring all the same. "He is pinning demons against demons. Using mutated demons. Using his strength to frighten them and bind them," Sesshomaru said, his mouth a thin line. "He himself isn't a regular demon—as you can tell by Kagura's existence. He keeps a shield up around the castle," Sesshomaru said his eyes blankly cold as they stared into his. "A shield that let you in and out."
Inuyasha tried to follow where his brother was going with this. "Mutated how?" he inquired, genuinely curious. Shields were usually more of Miroku's area of specialty, as those of this nature usually involved magic, but Inuyasha thought he understood. "So it only lets mutated demons and humans pass through, which is why you can't attack?"
Sesshomaru's grin was somewhere between pityingly cruel and painfully mocking. "He pins them against each other in mountains, for every demon killed, its strengths are drawn to the winner, until out of hundreds of demons one, more powerful and blood thirsty then all the rest remain. He has hundreds of those, who just to get out of those mountains, swear their loyalty to him," Sesshomaru explained then added on slowly, as though talking to an idiot. "He let you in and out. That shield isn't so easily penetrable. It cannot be broken."
"Then what? Draw him out? He'll just send demons out after us, the same way that he did just now. Couldn't you try and harness this power for yourself, Sesshomaru?" he asked. Inuyasha didn't like the idea of his brother becoming even more powerful, but now that Sesshomaru had said he wouldn't attack Kagome or her children, Inuyasha was willing to let Sesshomaru do whatever the hell he felt like doing.
Kagome's whole face lit up at the sight of Inuyasha. Waving to him, Kagome awkwardly and embarrassed looked over her shoulder, well, not look, averted her eyes at the sight of Miroku and Sango. She was still in shock that he had managed to follow her with his hands in Sango's shirt the whole time. "Um, yeah, I'm going ahead," Kagome said and quickly picked up speed, rushing towards her demonic princely husband.
Miroku just smirked and pinched Sango, lowering his lips back to her neck. It was somewhat awkward walking behind her the whole time, his hands and mouth fondling her, but they were rudely disturbed and he just couldn't sate his want for his dear wife so easily.
"Looks like this will have to wait till later," Miroku spoke against her ear, warm breathes passing over her skin and caressing it. His expression became serious at the sight of Inuyasha and Sesshomaru. Miroku retrieved his hands from the folds of Sango's shirt and warmth of her flesh. "Remember your promise," he begged and kissed her cheek, arm draping around her waist as he pulled her to his side and continued the march onwards.
Kagome, coming up to Inuyasha smiled softly, a smile that quickly dispensed when she saw his pinched expression. "What is it?" Kagome asked, looking over at Sesshomaru with near to little fear before turning back to Inuyasha. "What's going on?" she demanded, like the head-strong Priestess she was.
"Just talking about everyone's favorite demon," her husband answered. Inuyasha didn't tell her about his earlier talk with Sesshomaru. The ex-king of demons was his problem to deal with, and not Kagome's. Her biggest worry, as far as Inuyasha was concerned, should be training Kaede, and other Priestess stuff. "Miroku might be the better person to talk to about this shield," he told his brother.
Sango looked around, confused. Obviously they had missed the start of a rather important discussion. She'd have to keep her ears open to try and fill in all the missing pieces. She stood there, listening intently as Sesshomaru exasperatingly repeated what he had just told Inuyasha. Sango arrived at the same conclusion as Inuyasha had: 'What the fuck?'
This was just a bit above her head, she thought, but she refused to let that scare her away. "If he doesn't want us to, we can't cross that barrier again," she pointed out. "And even if he did want us to, it will be when it's beneficial to him, and not a moment before then."
"We make the moment beneficial for him," Sesshomaru tossed in her direction, not wanting to waste his time on a human female. "We ought to keep on towards the camp." With that, Sesshomaru walked away.
'Bastard,' Sango thought before she looked up at Miroku. Her lips slowly grinned, feeling his fingers on her hip and hearing all the words he said repeating endlessly in her mind. He was a distraction, but a welcome one. She winked at him, and leaned into his shoulder. "Demons hanging over head, I haven't had breakfast yet and we're already fooling around, certain doom nipping at our heels. Feels just like old times."
Miroku grinned down at her. "That it does. Which reminds me," Miroku posed as he began following the lead set by Sesshomaru, "of all those hours of going over the satura. We've been too busy making our own to rely back on good old foundation and tradition," he teased. "You know, you don't have to be any part in this. We could open a portal, send you and Kagome back," Miroku offered, wanting to give his wife one more escape route before she signed herself over to this battle for good.
Sango was quiet. It wasn't the temptation of going home that made Sango quiet, but how to explain it to Miroku. She matched his step, smiling at their feet. "I don't have to be a part, true enough, but I want to be." Her smile vanished from her mouth as she looked up at him, the matter too serious for a grin. Even her eyes were hard and determined. "I'm a demon exterminator: this is what I do. If the two worlds remained as closed as they have been, then let me go out in a bang. Besides, our lives are like one now. This matter concerns you, and through you, me. Even if that weren't true, I would refuse to leave. I don't run from battle."
Kagome stood there and looked at Inuyasha. "What aren't you telling us?"
Inuyasha's faltering smile kind of gave away the fact that he had been hiding something, but still he refused to tell Kagome. At least for a little while longer. "Nothing. You just got the abridged version of our conversation. You didn't miss anything but him calling me names, Kagome." Inuyasha wanted to reach out and hold her, to stroke her hair and kiss her suspicious smile, but his brother's words were suspicious to him, and preoccupied his mind. Looking at her, however, he knew he couldn't hide anything from her. "You don't have to be scared of Sesshomaru anymore, Kagome. He's never going to try and hurt you again."
Kagome's eyes still remained narrowed, but with an exasperated sigh she gave up questioning him. He would tell her when the time was right. "It wasn't me I was worried about him hurting," Kagome said, and in reflection hoped he understood it wasn't the baby either, but himself. After all, Kagome was still plagued by the stories Shippo told her of what Sesshomaru did to her husband. "We can't trust him," Kagome settled, her face looking thoughtful. "But I suppose for now, we have to work with him. Gain back your lands, have my own silly revenge, and free this land," Kagome whispered hearing the land singing out for want of life.
Now he took her into her arms and kissed her gently. "I'm working on it," he guaranteed, taking her hand and followed his brother, not the least bit eager about taking his pregnant wife into a demon army camp.